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screen

1. To provide with a shelter or means of concealment; to separate or cut off from inconvience, injury, or danger; to shelter; to protect; to protect by hiding; to conceal; as, fruits screened from cold winds by a forest or hill. They were encouraged and screened by some who were in high comands. (Macaulay)

2. To pass, as coal, gravel, ashes, etc, through a screen in order to separate the coarse from the fine, or the worthless from the valuable; to sift. 3. To examine a group of objects methodically, to separate them into groups or to select one or more for some purpose. As (a), To inspect the qualifications of candidates for a job, to select one or more to be hired. (b) (Biochem, Med) To test a large number of samples, in order to find those having specific desirable properties; as, to screen plant extracts for anticancer agents.

Origin: Screened; Screening.

1. Anything that separates or cuts off inconvience, injury, or danger; that which shelters or conceals from view; a shield or protection; as, a fire screen. Your leavy screens throw down. (Shak) Some ambitious men seem as screens to princes in matters of danger and envy. (bacon)

2. A dwarf wall or partition carried up to a certain height for separation and protection, as in a church, to separate the aisle from the choir, or the like.

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3. A surface, as that afforded by a curtain, sheet, wall, etc, upon which an image, as a picture, is thrown by a magic lantern, solar microscope, etc.

4. A long, coarse riddle or sieve, sometimes a revolving perforated cylinder, used to separate the coarser from the finer parts, as of coal, sand, gravel, and the like. 5. A netting, usu. Of metal, contained in a frame, used mostly in windows or doors to allow in fresh air while excluding insects. Screen door, a door of which half or more is composed of a screen. Screen window, a screen fitted for insertion into a window frame. 6. The surface of an electronic device, as a television set or computer monitor, on which a visible image is formed. The screen is frequently the surface of a cathode-ray tube containing phosphors excited by the electron beam, but other methods for causing an image to appear on the screen are also used, as in flat-panel displays. 7. The motion-picture industry; motion pictures. A star of stage and screen.

Origin: OE. Scren, OF. Escrein, escran, F. Ecran, of uncertain origin; cf. G. Schirm a screen, OHG. Scrim, scern a protection, shield, or G. Schragen a trestle, a stack of wood, or G. Schranne a railing.